People use a multitude of electronic devices. Some of these electronic devices can be attached to various computing devices, such as smart phones, for example an iPhone™, or tablet computing devices, for example an iPad™. One example of such an electronic device is a payment card reader (“card reader”), e.g., a magnetic card reader provided by payment processing companies such as Square, Inc. A card reader can read various types of payment cards, e.g., credit cards or debit cards. Some card readers are made such that the card reader can be attached to a device such as a smart phone or tablet to process a payment made by “swiping” a payment card through or proximate to the card reader.
These electronic devices occasionally fail. When an electronic device fails, and if the electronic device is covered by a warranty or a replacement plan, some users will take prompt action to replace the electronic device. Other users may not take prompt action. For example, the user may be busy and may not have the time to obtain a replacement electronic device. Alternatively, the user may not consider the electronic device to be very important, so the user may decide that replacing the electronic device is not worth the time or hassle it could take. However, payment processing companies would still prefer to replace failed or failing electronic devices, e.g., so that it does not become difficult for users to use payment processing services provided by the companies.
The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be expanded or reduced to help improve the understanding of various embodiments. Similarly, some components and/or operations may be separated into different blocks or combined into a single block for the purposes of discussion of some of the embodiments. Moreover, although specific embodiments have been shown by way of example in the drawings and described in detail below, one skilled in the art will recognize that modifications, equivalents, and alternatives will fall within the scope of the appended claims.